Love and Compassion make us Human

For the people who know me well I have always been a sensitive type of person. I particularly feel other people’s emotions especially when it’s pains or difficulties.

Two subjects, in particular, that deeply touch me and make me feel powerless are any form of violence or neglect to children and animals.

I have a beautiful daughter, whom I home educate, she is smart, caring and gifted. Like me she is very sensitive, although I am not sure that is a gift in the world we live today.

Recently we have welcomed a beautiful baby Beagle in our home.

Her name is Daisy Tumbore 🙂 ↓

I’m going to be honest, we didn’t know much about Beagles before bringing her here, but that didn’t matter. We wanted to love her and care for her. As we got to know Daisy better we educated ourselves about beagles and some other breeds.

Amongst beautiful and funny stories, we also discovered some bitter realities.

Animal Testing

I remember in the late 90s finding out about cruelty free products. At that time it didn’t mean much to me. I had no idea. The concept I had back then of animal testing was a very naïve one.

So what’s the truth? What happens to our beagles?

Just to go straight to the point

beagles are poisoned with experimental substances to measure toxicity in the products that many of us regularly buy. They are mostly force-fed or injected.

I let you imagine the side effects that many of them will endure.

They are kept in small cages with minimal food. The vast majority of beagles at the end of the experiment are killed or dies before.

It’s terrifying. It’s cruel and in many cases it’s done in the name of vanity (cosmetic products). You’ll get an idea when you see some of the brand names behind this atrocity.

BeagleFreedomProject

It isn’t necessary.

This atrocious practice has been going for a while. In 1975 an undercover reporter exposed how beagles were locked and forced to inhale smoke to test a cigarette.

In one of these experiments researchers cut holes in their throats to force them to breathe concentrated cigarette smoke for an entire year.

How can we make a difference?

Educate yourself. Be a savvy consumer.

These are some of the companies that test on animals

Beagle Freedom Project ♥

“Beagle Freedom Project, founded in 2010, is a unique program run by the Los Angeles-based non-profit Animal Rescue, Media, and Education (ARME). Beagle Freedom Project negotiates with laboratories across the world to secure the release of dogs and other animals and give them a chance at a normal home life after everything they have endured for vanity and scientific curiosity.

The organization uses the rescues to draw public attention to the plight of animals languishing in labs and to promote cruelty-free lifestyle choices everyone can make. The beagles act as ambassadors who give faces to animal testing victims and remind the public that these animals are not just furry test-tubes, but dogs no different from their pets.

BFP has rescued hundreds of animals, including beagles, mixed-breed hounds, cats, rabbits, ponies, pigs, goats, guinea pigs, ferrets, rats, and even goldfish from laboratories, in cities and countries spanning the globe! Their stories of recovery have been covered extensively by local and national media, such as CNN, NBC Nightly News, HLN, The L.A. Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, Yahoo! News, The Huffington Post, The Washington Post, and many more.

Beagle Freedom Project has an ambitious immediate and long-term agenda that is both political and pragmatic. The organization is working toward the release of more animals and an end to animal testing altogether.

Mission: to give all animals life outside of laboratories and inspire public discourse about the practice of vivisection through rescue efforts and public policy.

Vision: A world in which progress and innovation is achieved entirely through non-animal research methods.”

These are the stats:

“ About 70,000 dogs are used in research experiments every year, and of that number, approximately 96% of them are beagles.

Beagles, as a breed, are naturally very docile and trusting of humans. Research laboratories buy them from companies who purpose-breed beagles in order to amplify these inherent traits, so that they are easier for lab technicians to handle.

BeagleFreedomProject – A breeder supplier to laboratories with a new batch ready to be sent off to a lab for their experiments.

Beagle Freedom Project will rescue any animal from laboratories willing to release. To date, we have rescued all breeds of dogs, cats, goats, horses, pigs, rats, rabbits, ferrets, guinea pigs, and even fish from labs.

The rescue varies from lab to lab. BFP reaches out to every lab in the U.S. asking to assist with post-research placements. Some facilities voluntarily work with BFP through animal care technicians and others are compelled to do so because of the Beagle Freedom Law. Often rescues are sensitive and cannot be publicly announced because the labs threaten to kill all future dogs and animals if they see their victims on our website.”

Any way you can support this beautiful program, through choosing cruelty free products, making a donation, shop from their website, adopting a rescue dog or even just spread the word about what they do, will make a difference.

If your heart is in it you’re already half way through ♥

Cruelty free Products App

Super cool!

As I do my shopping, if ever I’m in doubt about a product, I scan its bar code using the app (literally 3 seconds!) and I find out. Sometimes, as I am in the UK, not all products are available and known to the app but you can still scan and report them, so they can find out if the product is cruelty free and add it to the software.